Matt Chandler’s excellent post on shepherding people to truth:
Give people texts to read and then give them plenty of space to wrestle. I love strong, convincing theologically driven books. The Bible’s better.
Listen. Don’t listen to respond. Listen. You’ll find that people usually have an aversion to truth because it is affecting something or someone very close to them. If you’ll listen and see past a specific theological agenda, you can minister to their hearts. Let me give you an example. The Village is reformed in theology. A few weeks ago after an especially clear presentation of God’s sovereignty over salvation a young man came up to me after service frustrated with what I taught. It didn’t take long to figure out someone very close to him wasn’t a believer. We prayed for his family member for 10-15 minutes and asked the merciful God of the universe to save. After we prayed together, he told me he needed to “learn more of what the Bible says about all this.” After feeling loved, cared for and then prayed with, he was much more open to hear the scriptures unpacked. I have found this to be the case more often than not.
Go read his other two bullets at the link above. good stuff.
hat tip to vitamin z.
This certainly hit home for me. I have some really close friends that I know aren’t saved, and I think that really has affected my perception of God’s sovereignty. I realize, of course, that God doesn’t randomly pick and choose who is saved (2 Pt. 3:9). Again, for me, it’s a matter of faith and trust in that sovereignty that he knows what he’s doing, and actively praying for them, rather than living in fear.